Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1983, 57, 1255-1262. © Perceptual and Motor Skills 1983
RELIGIOUS AND MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES AS ARTIFACTS OF
TEMPORAL LOBE FUNCTION: A GENERAL HYPOTHESIS
Micheal A. Persinger
Laurentian University
Summary: Mystical and religious experiences are hypothesized to be evoked by transient, electrical microseizures within deep structures of the temporal lobe. Although experiential details are affected by context and reinforcement history, basic themes reflect the inclusion of different amygdaloid-hippocampal structures and adjacent cortices. Whereas the unusual electrical coherence allows access to infantile memories of parents, a source of god expectations, specific stimulation evokes out-of-body experiences, space-time distortions, intense meaningfulness, and dreamy scenes. The species-specific similarities in temporal lobe properties enhance the homogeneity of cross- cultural experiences. They exist along a continuum that ranges from “early morning highs” to recurrent bouts of conversion and dominating religiosity. Predisposing factors include any biochemical or genetic factors that produce temporal lobe lability. A variety of precipitating stimuli provoke these experiences, but personal (life) crises and death bed conditions are optimal. These temporal lobe microseizures can be learned as responses to existential trauma because stimulation is of powerful intrinsic reward regions and reduction of death anxiety occurs. The implications of these transients as potent modifiers of human behavior are considered.
The neuropsychological basis of religious experiences and God beliefs has avoided by behavioral scientists. Yet these experiences, in conjunction the confrontation and attenuation of death anxiety, constitute a major class of human behaviors whose frequency is rivaled only by sex and aggression. This paper briefly describes a general hypothesis that religious and mystical experiences are normal consequences of spontaneous biogenic stimulation of temporal lobe structures. The numbers, composition, and intensity of these experiences reflect a continuum of temporal lobe stability. Each human being may be located somewhere along this dimension.
The temporal lobe of the human brain is an optimal locus for the creation of religious experiences. Cortical and deep structures (primarily the amygdaloid and hippocampal complexes) are associated with the sense of “self” in relationship to time and space, the memory-dependent conception of their limits primary affective components of anticipation, especially of nociceptive events. Given copious inputs from languaging centers (Gloor, 1972), all of these experiences are influenced by suggestion and by the rich imagery-evoking sequences of metaphorical language. It is not surprising that anticipation of self-dissolution, death anxiety, would emerge within this context.
Deep telencephalic structures have acquired particular importance in human development. Experiences of self and the propensity for self-preservation have been elaborated upon the general amygdaloid role of hypothalamic modulation. The amygdala contains representations of motivational states and their affective (pleasure or reward versus pain or punishment) dimensions. Whereas crude (and wide spread) stimulation evokes fear (Weingarten, Cherlow, & Holmgren, 1977) and general anxiety (anticipation of negative stimuli), more subtle stimulation evokes intense meaningfulness and peak experiences; the latter are often in conjunction with altered body perceptions, such as out-of-body experiences (Jasper & Rasmussen, 1958) or convictions of cosmic communion.
Intricate and highly organized connections between deep structures and the overlying associative cortices allow complex memories and language to control the evocation of amygdaloid experiences. Consequently, they can be infused with the details of context and determined by the expectancy of the person. Plentiful opiate receptor sites in this portion of the amygdala and along the temporal pole (Pay, 1982) allow positive experiences to be influenced by a chemical dimension that ranges from synthetic substances (morphine derivatives) to the enkephalin physiology of life crises.
Considering the direct connections to the dorsomedial portions of the thalamus and orbital frontal lobes, time distortions (e.g., viewing eternity in a split second) would not be unexpected. Sudden amygdaloid stimulation and alteration of the sense of self in space-time could momentarily alter hippocampal function and change memory reference. The alteration may range from institution of memories that appear to be “old and real” to the conviction that something meaningful and intensely personal has happened (although the details are vague). A significant portion of them would be characterized by a long latency between the time of the experience and its report.
Three important physiological properties target the temporal lobe as the source of mystical/religious experiences. Post-stimulation electrical instability, an intrinsic feature of deep structures, allows the creation of transient neuronal firing patterns that do not necessarily represent concurrent sensory input. Instead, they could incorporate combinations of memory and fantasy, but still within the context of the moment. This region is well known for its capacity to generate learned seizures (kindling); antithetically, conditioned inhibition of seizure patterns, is also predictable and has been observed (Efron, 1957).
Second, these areas are prone to vascular anomalies such as transient vasospasms. They are now considered a primary cause of hallucinatory experiences (Altura & Altura, 1981). The recent evolutionary changes in the position of Ammon’s horn, including the formation of an extra gyrus to accommodate this development, has fostered vasospasmogenic potential due to the odd cytoarchitecture. This is enhanced by the conspicuous coronal asymmetry of the Sylvian fissures (LeMay, 1982) which contribute to unusual electrical discrepancies between the two hemispheres.
The plasticity of temporal lobe neuronal and glial populations are exceptional. Cellular membranes in this region are prone to both interneuronal and neuronal-glial fusion, an important predisposing factor to psychomotor epilepsy (Schwartzkroin, 1983); within less extreme conditions, it aids unusual mixtures of cell ensembles. They can be affected by vitamin B deficiencies, hormonal fluctuations, hypoglycemia, hypoxia, and tumorogenesis, to which these structures are particularly sensitive (Breggin, 1979). Although postnatal neurogenesis has not been clearly demonstrated in man, this area displays environmental-dependent alterations in dendritic arborbization that are evident even by light microscopy (Buell & Coleman, 1979).
According to the hypothesis, the actual mystical or religious experience is evoked by a transient (a few seconds), very focal, electrical display within the temporal lobe. Such temporal lobe transients (TLTs) would be analogous to electrical microseizures without any obvious motor components; some facial expressions, such as ecstasy and occasional lacrimation would be noticeable. Lip smacking, facial distortions, automatisms, and vagal glossopharyngeal-mediated vocalization (speaking in tongues), followed by amnesia, would occur in more extreme conditions. Although most TLTs should be subcortical in origin, some would be represented within electroencephalic (EEG) profiles. They would be characterized by local, perhaps even lead- specific, transient, seizure-like signatures surrounded by normal activity.
